Page 32 of Spiralling Skywards
“No.”
“I’ll be the builder; you can be the desperate housewife?”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at him, all the while trying not to smile.
“The plumber? I’ve come to plug your leak, darl’.”
My lips twitched, but he kept a perfectly straight face.
“The postman? Special delivery, ahugepackage for Sarah.”
“Liam?”
“Sarah?”
I sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. We stared at each other in silence for a few moments.
“Why are we looking at a house big enough for a family with nine children, three dogs, two gerbils, and a cat to live in?”
He stopped grinding against me and was quiet for a moment before taking a step back.
“Come with me.” He took my hand and led me down the stairs and back into the kitchen. It had cream cupboards and beech wood worktops. There was a large green aga style oven and a butler sink. Whomever had decorated it had gone for a farmhouse look, which probably looked great ten years ago.
“What would you do with this space?” He stepped away from me, looked around, and gestured with both arms that he meant the whole area.
“I don’t understand, what do you mean?”
“This area here, the kitchen. Would you leave it as is, or would you modernise, bring it up to date?”
“Modernise.”
“How?”
I looked around. The layout was perfect, apart from the décor, the whole house was perfect.
“Well, I wouldn’t change the layout since the flow is perfect. I love the fact that you can close that front living area off with the bifold doors and that you have those big double doors that lead to the garden. I’d be inclined to pull up the carpet and have hardwood all the way through, put a new kitchen in, something nice and neutral, and add a glass splashback and stainless steel appliances.”
I shrugged my shoulders and pursed my lips together, suddenly feeling shy. I’d gone through a stage a few years back where I was obsessed with home and lifestyle magazines. Planning and designing what my dream house would look like, if I were to ever meet my dream man, who would eventually become my dream, neck-kissing husband. That dream had ended, been snuffed out by reality, taking my obsession with it. I was under no illusion that I would ever get to live in one of the houses I had dreamt up.
“Sounds perfect. Wanna help me do it?”
“Wha? You mean you actually wanna buy a house this size? You’re a single bloke, why would you wanna rattle around in a place this big?”
I watched as he pushed one hand into the pocket of his jeans and raked the fingers of the other through his hair. He left his hand at the back of his neck, as if he were trying to massage away tension.
“Okay, I don’t want you to freak out at this suggestion. Just hear me out first, yeah, Sares?”
That statement alone would generally have had me freaking the fuck out, but all I’d actually gotten from it was that he’d called me “Sares”. I thought I’d heard him say it in the week, and it had made my heart do handstands because of the level of intimacy it implied was between us. It was nothing and yet it was so much.
It was everything. This time, he’d definitely said it. I felt like I was floating. My whole breath didn’t quite reach my lungs, my head hurt ever so slightly—probably due to the lack of oxygen reaching it—and I felt just a little bit dizzy, but it was all good. Everything was okay because Liam Delaney had just called meSares.
“I know we’ve only been seeing each other for a month, but I’m old enough now to know my own heart and to listen to my own head.” He looked down at his crotch before looking back up at me. “Generally the big one more than the little one, but anyway.” He let out a breath. “I’m not asking anything from you, Sarah. I don’t want your promises or declarations of undying love, we’ve known each other four weeks and this is real life, not a made-for-telly film that they show on weekday afternoons. We will get to that shit, but not until the time is right.”
My mouth may have been hanging open by that point, and if it wasn’t, it soon was when he said what he did next.
“But if you’re feeling even half as much as what I am, then you’ll believe me when I say that I’m one hundred percent committed to you. To us. And I know it sounds like bullshit, and I know it’s only been four weeks, but I love this house and as soon as I walked through the door, I could picture you standing here,usliving here one day. In this house. Together. Maybe?”
His eyes darted rapidly all over my face, and he shrugged his shoulders.
